


Future tense

by katiebuttercup



Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: AU, Friendship, Multi, OT3, Pre Relationship, Rule 63, Soulmates, genderbent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-20
Updated: 2014-07-20
Packaged: 2018-02-09 14:34:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1986591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katiebuttercup/pseuds/katiebuttercup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gyda has many plans for the future; Athelsa has none</p>
            </blockquote>





	Future tense

Disclaimer: characters depicted here do not belong to me 

Warning un beta'd and probably historically inaccurate

"Do you ever look at your stomach and think one day I will be a mother and bear children?" Gyda asked. 

"No," 

Gyda shrugged off the priestesses short answer. Spinning was one of the jobs Athelsa had taken a shine to but it was also one of the jobs she had the most difficulty with and it required all of her attention. Her mother had commented on the unevenness of the yarn she had produced and afterwards Athelsa had dedicated the afternoon to improving her spinning. 

"Sometimes I am afraid." 

It's something she would never have mentioned in largertha's hearing. She didn't think her mother would understand. How could she when her mother feared nothing? It was natural for a women to bear children but the idea still gripped her with a nameless fear. 

One of the priestesses great talents that tended to be overlooked by largertha and Ragnar was her sensitivity. She set the spindle on her lap and pressed her fingers against Gyda's. 

"You have years ahead of you yet Gyda, and when you find a man to whom you will gift children it won't seem like such a frightening concept. It will be an honour."

"And will you find a partner?" Gyda asked, "A man to have your children with?" 

Athelsa looked stung, "I have taken orders, I will never have a husband and children." 

"Even now when your God is so far away?" Gyda ventured. 

"It's even more important here," Athelsa said intently. "In England it was much easier to know...to be close to God. Here...I am alone," she paused and then blushed as if she had said something she shouldn't have. "Not alone," she corrected "just that I have to listen harder." 

Gyda said nothing. She didn't understand Athelsa's god, why he would separate her from people who loved her. Why He stopped them being a family. 

Gyda may be a child but she had heard the women talk at market of conquest in and out of the bedroom, of the dynamics of a relationship. She had witnessed the spark of the ancient soulmate connection that drew people together and had watched the way her parents had looked at the priestess. 

Watched Athelsa ignore it all. 

Athelsa took up her spinning, "but now that I am no longer a slave perhaps I could have a home, in Kattegat." She held up the spindle, displaying her still uneven yarn, "I could sell my yarn to earn my keep."

Gyda smiled but the action hurt her cheeks.


End file.
